Lady Lions hold off Purdue

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State women’s basketball program honored its three seniors Saturday: Kaliyah Mitchell, Sierra Moore and Peyton Whitted, and behind a combined 34 points from that group, they walked away with a 79-73 victory over Purdue at the Bryce Jordan Center.

While it was not the final home game for this group — that will come on Feb. 26 vs. Michigan in the 11th annual Play4Kay benefiting Pink Zone game — the group was honored pregame, along with the program’s five senior managers.

The seniors set the tone early, scoring 14 of the team’s first 16 points, before Teniya Page brought it home with 14 second half-points, including 11 in the final quarter.

In a game featured 14 ties and 17 lead changes — the final coming when Sierra Moore hit a pair of free throws with 40 seconds remaining in the third quarter to give Penn State a 54-53 lead — the difference came in the second half, where Penn State outscored Purdue 41-31, thanks for just one turnover and 10 points off of six offensive rebounds.

Whitted was the first Lady Lion to reach double figures, scoring all 11 of her points by halftime, while Moore poured in 11 of her 13 points after the break. Mitchell was a steady force for Penn State, as she registered her third double-double of the season and 10th of her career with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Page continued her pursuit of 1,000 career points, pouring in a game-high 24 tallies to push her into the top-40 in school history. Page’s 24 points came in the final three quarter — including 11 in the fourth quarter — as she did not attempt a shot in the opening 10 minutes and entered halftime with just seven tallies.

In her 55th career game, Page pushed her scoring total to 942 points (17.1 ppg) to rank No. 40 on the Penn State list. She passed Carla Coleman, who scored 921 career points from 1992-95, for No. 40 on the list.